Process of making a vegetable food



E. H. MILES ET AL -/f/S. w, 1930.

PROCESS OF MAKING A VEGETABLE FOOD Filed July 8, 1926 2.1 ported Without risk of deterioration. `products of our process have remained good STATE paraat FFE@E EUSTACE HAMILTON MILES, F LONDON, AND GERARD REILLY, OF LUTON, ENGLAND Application ed July, 1926, Serial No. 121,230, and in Great Britain J'uly produce a highly concentrated vegetable food composition made :trom selected classes of vegetables in certain proportions, which is of a pleasant flavour, free from bitterness or other unpleasant taste, Which contains undeteriorated the greater part of the vitamins,

natural plantsalts in their organic combination, essential oils and other food elements of the vegetablesA (much of which is lost in ordinary cooking) so combined as to be easy 1,-, of digestion, and having the said food elements combined in such proportions and in such a Way as to form a curative food suitable for the maintenance of health andpres vention of disease and Which also will remain 2u good and edible for many months even though exposed to the air, Without the addition of any preservative Whatever,and Without subjection to great heat as in cooking or canning, and which can be packed and tansome and edible though exposed to the air or more Jthan two years.

Hitherto in order to delay or prevent decay 3u or deterioration of food products, it has been 'L found necessary to subject them to a high temperature as in ordinary cooking and/or to prolongedheating, as boiling or baking and/or .also to add thereto some preservative, such as ordina-ry rened (and therefore devitalized) sugar, table salt, boric acid or formaldehyde. Such sugar sometimes crystalliZesWhen the food is exposed to the air and also is irritatinc to the stomach, and is ditlicult of digestion by certain persons. Salt is Well known to the medical profession to have a deleterious eii'ect on the blood pressure of certain persons. Boric acid is also Well known to be deleterious to health, as is formaldehyde.

By our process the use of such high temperatures and such added preservatives is avoided entirely and the product preserved from decay or deterioration in part by the use of the juice of vegetables containing saccharine material. This juice is subjected to hydrolyzation (together with the juices of the other vegetables treated) which hydrolyzes the saccharoses and crystallization is avoided, While at the same time the vitamins, natural plant salts and other valuable food elements in the juices (which are absent from refined sugar) are retained and so the i'ood value of the product is increased.

The high concentration of the natural plant salts, vitamins and oils of the vegetables themselves also acts as a preservative, preventing'decay or deterioration.

Our product is characterized by a distinctive pleasant flavour partaking partly of. the combined flavour of the different vegetables used, also by the absence of all bitterness or unpleasant flavours Which exist in the vegetables themselves, or are developed by comminuting the vegetables or otherwise during the process; Which unpleasant lavours are eliminated bythe alternating of the diiierent steps of our process. The characteristic avour of our product is also created partly by caramelization, at the stages of our process indicated hereafter, and an agreeable colour is also thereby created which is useful in making a saleable product.

High temperatures such as are used in ordinary cooking destroy some of these pleasant flavours, .and also destroy' or render less capable of assimilation some of the vitamins, natural plant salts, essential oils and other valuable food elements. rthese are retained undeteriorated by our process in which the temperatures employed and the duration of their employment are considerably less than those used in ordinary cooking of vegetables. This results also in great economy of fuel and heat.

process (hereafter more particularly described) which consistsin selecting vegeta- *bles of the types and classes and in about the proportions hereafter described, some of which vegetables contain about 1% or less of saccharinev material and some which contain about 3% to 15% of such material, (said proportions beingsuitable, but our invention is not limited to the same) extracting'their juices cold, separately, by dividing or comminuting them, then draining and pressing away the juices (reserving the residues for treatment by suitable edible acid juice, preferably in organic or non-devitalized form, but any suitable edible mineral acid may be emplo ed to renderv soluble and extract the insolu le phosphates, and to extract the calcium, 'magnesium and other natural plant salts in their organic or nonedevitalized form therefrom to make the acid extract), heating the vegetables or the juices at certain stages of the process and at temperatures hereafter described, collecting together the said juices, adding thereto the said acid extract, hydrolyzing the saccharoses therein, then concentrating the product by 'evaporating the same in vacuo, which separates the essential oils, then adding the said oils to said concentrate which constitutes the finished product.,

A portion of said residues may also be ground fine and added to the said concentrate so as to use the natural plant saltsfremaining in them, to increase the food value of the product.

A. certain class of said vegetables which are of a drycharacter, such as beans, are treated separately (as hereafter more fully described) and the juice from them is procured by adding water, soaking and com- ,minuting, this 'uice is then caramelized by heating to pro uce colour and an improved fiavour. Certain vegetables which contain Iessential oils of an unpleasant flavour are treated separately and concentrated in vacuo separately as aforesaid,'and the concentrate added to the finished product, while the said oils extracted by heating are thrown away.

Hydrolyzation in our process differs from that ordinarily employed by chemists vizby heating a substance with crude acid or alkali, which is not suitable for a food product.

yOne of the parts of our process which we claim as new,vis such hydrolyzation in such a living (non-devitalized) solution, -by living plant salts and acids at a temperature that does not devitalize them or the product.A The hydrolyzation is done by the acid of the vegetables used for the extraction of the insoluble phosphates, and by the calcium and magnesium salts extracted by said acid and by the salts of the other juices so mixed. These elements all coact in the process.

Another essential feature of our process which is new, is that the insoluble phosphates in the vegetables are rendered soluble by the use of a non-devitalized vegetable acid juice in the treatment of said residues, (instead of mineral acid) and said hosphates arev removed from the fibre o said residues in such forni as to be assimilable by the human 'system in which they are of great value -as food for the brain, nerves and bones. The use of mineral acid destroys this assimilability.

In our process another essential feature which is new, is that we employ th-e fresh juices of vegetables, containing acid in large proportions, as they exist in the plant, instead of using inorganic acid, to render soluble and extract the insoluble natural plant salts lretained by the fibres or pulp including the phosphates of calcium and magnesium, iron manganese, etc., from the said residues.

vThis extraction is thus effected without destroying the vitalistic connection between the purely mineral part andthe organic part of said natural plant salts. In other Words it avoids devitalization of said salts. The

use of mineral acids to effect the extraction of said salts would have the effect of devitalizing the said salts.

The avoidance by our process of devitalization of the natural plant salts is an essential feature of the process and is new. By natural Yplant salts or natural salts is meant the complex substances resulting from the vital action of the growth of plants in which the metallic salts (e. g. calcium phosphate) are in combination with organic substances (in which form they are directly assimilable in the process of digestion which is not the case with ordinary pure chemical salts).

The result of our process is a new and improved food product more 'beneficial to health, which contains, in a greater quantity and in a more `concentrated and more assimilable form than in other-known food products the metallic salts inorganic combination (the natural plant salts) and vitamins of the vegetables themselves; and a special characteristic of, this food is that it keeps eldible for many months though exposed to t e a'ir.

Our product is more useful and also of c improved efiicacy as a food in (and a preventive of) those states of ill-health which are due to deficiency ofthe natural salts and vitamins and can be prepared to contain special proportions (by selecting for the process vegetables containing them) of' those metallic plant salts which have good effects in casesI of disease;l for example (but not limiting it to use in such diseases) of sodium for acidosis in general; of potassium for cancer; ofiron, for anaemia; of calcium, for defective digestion of albumen, for too free bleeding, for deficiencies of teeth and bone, and of tone to the bowels. It is an aid inconstipation. Magnesium also aids in cases of constipation and deficient bowel tone.

For this purpose vegetables may be selected for use in our process which contain such salts in a high degree normally and/or by reason of being grown on soils which produce in them an excess of such salts. The selection of such vegetables and the quantity of them to be. used in the process may be left to the choice of the dietetist or chemist desiring to prepare such special food by our process for use in the case of those suffering from one or other of such diseases.

Our invention includes the several steps described and the relation and order of one or more of the said steps with respect to each of the other steps, and also includes the product resulting therefrom.

It is intended that the description herein given is to be taken as illustrative and not in a limiting sense, as many changes can be made in carrying out our process without departing from the scope of our in vention.

We produce the said food composition in the following manner, which can be more easily understood by reference to the accomoanying table, as the process is somewhat complex.

The vegetable food materials to be used inr this composition are divided into three main classes. I. Vegetable food materials containing aboutv 1% or less of saccharine material. H. Vegetable food materials which contain about 3% to 15% or more of saccharine material. HI. Vegetable food materials containing acids in large proportion.

Class l is divided into four sub-classes needing different ,treatment on account of the di'erent properties of the dierent vegetables.

Sub-class (a)-Vegetable food material from the raw juice of which undesirable properties such as bitter or nauseous flavours, characteristic of the vegetable itself can be removed by heating and straining as described. (Type spinach, lettuce, cabbage, water-cress etc.

Sub-class 5)-Vegetable food material the raw juice of which`does not contain such undesirable properties and therefore require no such heating. (Type celery.)

Sub-class (0)-Vegetable food material which develops undesirable properties such TYPE OF FORMULA Lettuce Sub-class (a) Cabbage...

Class W ater-cress Sub-class (b) Celery..

Sub-class (c) Onons Sub-class (d) {gsm Class H {Carrot Acid .{Material Tomato Class III If it is desired to have a product containing more or less potash, soda, lime, magnesium, iron, or other salts suitable for persons suffering from certain ailments such as acidosis, rheumatism, gout, anaemia, etc. u

vegetables which contain more or less of said salts can be selected for the treatment under our process.

All the said vegetable materials are to be taken in their raw state, thoroughly cleaned and all refuse and decay removed. All the materials of the vessel, etc., which come into contact with the product in any stage of the process, must be such that no deleterious action takes place.

The material of Class I sub-class (a) is divided and comminuted (l) (see table) and the resulting .pulp drained and pressed to remove as much as possible of the vegetable juice (3), the residue is (3R) reserved for treatment by the acid material hereafter described (34) to (40). The juice (3) is heated (el) to 80 C., keeping it at said temperature until coagulation takes place, and the coagulum which forms is strained off and drained and pressed (5), leaving a' small residue (6R) which may be rejected as waste.

This juice (3) is heated at (4) because in the case of certain vegetables of this sub-class" (a) the raw juice has a harsh and bitter taste characteristic of the vegetable itself, which is removed or reduced with the coagulum when the latter is strained off, and thereby the flavour of the juice is improved. The juice (6) is then, with other juices subjected to the hydrolyzing process (411) as referred to hereafter.

The materials of Class l, sub-class are ltreated in a precisely similar manner to those of sub-class (a) except that the juice i (9) is not heated because it does not contain bitter or unpleasant flavours and is simply strained to remove any solids accidentally present. This juice (9) is reserved for further treatment with the juices and extracts by hydrolyzation and by the several steps of the process following thereon, to and including (46)` the end thereof, referred to here.- after. .he residue (9B) is also reserved for the same treatment as the residues at (34) to (4g) (inclusive) referred to hereafter.

he materials of Class l, sub-class (o) are used whole when not more than about 1%: of

an inch thick in the thickest parts, otherwise they are sliced or divided to reduce them to about that size, and immediately heated (10) by being plunged into boiling water or steamed until th'e whole reaches a temperature of about 80 C.: they are heated before being comminuted because we have found that heating prevents the formation of undesirable properties (i. e. bitter or unpleasant flavours, e. g. in the case of onions) which are otherwise formed by the mixing of the cell contents when the vegetable matter of this sub-class is comminuted w'ithout being `first heated. The size specified is simply conon', to and including (46), the end thereof,

referred to hereafter. The residue (13R) is reserved for the same treatment as the residues at (34) to (40) (inclusive) referred to hereafter. d

The materials of class I sub-class (d) being i dry, or partly dried, are treated with water and soaked (14), divided or comminuted (15), if notalready small, then drained and pressed (16) land the juice or liquor (17) is obtained. The residue (17R) is reserved for the lsame treatment as the residues at (34) to (40) (inclusive) Vreferred to hereafter. This juice or liquor -is evaporated to dryness (18) by heating in shallowfpans over the Water bath, and the dried residue is heated in like manner still on the water bath, until 1t develops a faint orange-brown colour and at the same time an appetizing flavour, by the slight dehydration or caramelization of some of the constituents of the'said'residuez This dried and heated residue is then lixiviated (19) with water in small quantity to dis-y solve the soluble constituents and is then strained and pressedl (20) and this liquor forms the juice I(21) obtained from materials of sub-class (b). This juice (21) is reserved for further treatment with the juices and extracts by hydrolyzation and by the several steps of the process following thereon, to and soluble portions of it cannot be easily sep-y arated. It is therefore necessary to evaporate it to dryness, which causes the proteids to be condensed intoa small bulk which enable the separationto be easily effected by liXiviation.

The heating also effects at the same time the caramelization and develops the appetizing flavour, and produces a change of colour which indicates that chemical action has taken place. f

The treatment (22) to.(27) of the' materials of Class II containing the saccharine constituents is identical with'that described above for the materials of Class I, sub-class (a), from (1) to (6) (inclusive) of the proccss (see table). The juice (27) is reserved for further treatment with the juices and eX- tracts by hydrolyzation and by the several steps -of the process following thereon, to and including (46), the end thereof, referred to hereafter.

The residue (24R) is reserved for the same treatment as the residues at (34) Vto (40) (inclusive) of the process referred to hereafter. The residue (27 R) is rejected as waste.

The acid material of Class III is obtained (29) to (33) from tomatoes or other suitable acid vegetable food material, by subjecting it to the process described above for Class I, subclass (a), from (1) to (6) (inclusive ofthe process). The final juice or material (33) so obtained is diluted with water (33') till the acidity is reduced to 0.035% to make the acid liquld to be used for spraying the residues at (35). Instead of this acid material of vegetable origin, we may use any suitable mineral acids diluted until the acidity is reduced to about 0.035% as above, but we perfer to use said organic acid from vegetablefood material; as inorganic acid has a tendency to devitalize the natural plant salts and renders the product less valuable as a food.

The residues obtained from materials of Class I and Class Il will have different values as sources of calcium and megnesium, largely on account of the kind of soil the vegetables are grown upon. Theresidues containing the most calcium and/or magnesium salts are selected for treatment by the acid liquid either by chemical test or roughly by inspection of the ash. The residues selected are collected together (34) and broken up line (35) sothat they can be readily penetrated by the said `acid liquid. This acid liquid is sprayed over the said residues forming a mass which is stirred and kneaded to secure mixture and the action is allowed to go on for about an hour at tions of other residues, which have not been Titi treated by acid, may if desired be ground fine and added to the concentrated product (42) to use the natural plant salts still remaining therein.

Five juices (6), (9), (13), and (27) have now been described, and 1n addition there are the juices (37) and (40) which are acid extracts from the treatments (35) and (38) ,just described. All of these juices (except such are as known to contain or by experiment are found to contain essential oils of an unpleasant flavour) are collected together (being intimately combined in solution) in one vessel and heated to about 7 5 C. (41) till hydrolyzation of the saccharoses is well advanced. rlhe liquid is then cooled to about 30 C., and passed on to the vacuum evaporator and there evapo-rated in vacuo and concentrated (42) until a viscous mass is formed. rlhere remains in the evaporator said viscous mass or concentrated product which is removed into a suitable receptacle. rlhe hydrolyzation is completed in the early stages of the concentration inthe vacuum evaporator' (42).

The vapours from the said evaporator are conveyed to a. condenser and there condensed by cooling (43) and the essential' oils contained therein extracted (45) by settlement or by a centrifuge. By experimenting it has been found that certain of the juices contain oils that yare of an unpleasant flavour (e. celery). These juices are hydrolyzed at (41), then concentrated in vacuo at (42) and the condensate (43) containing the unpleasant oils is run to waste and not used. The-concentrate (42) is mixed with the final product (46).` l

Those essential oils of a pleasant flavour which have been extracted at (45)"are retained and mixed with product in the receptacle (46) in order to utilize their avouring and preservative properties. This forms our finished product which is readyto be placed in containers for sale.

The iinal composition or product is a semisolid or viscous mass. It is plastic, not elastic like jelly. The specific gravity is about 1.5. rlhe odour is aromatic and appetizing. The colour is a deep brown, slightly reddish. The taste lis compounded partly of the characteristic flavours of the vegetablesused, with something added due to the caramelization of those' constituents which are sensitive to the low temperature employed. It is piquant with the slight acidity of the acid juice.

tractjng the natural When dilutedwith water it forms an appetizing soup. The water content is about 30%. The ash content is about 10%. The organic part consists largely of sugars and other carbohydrates, and also proteids and extractives.

However, the product cannot be properly described otherwise than by reference to the process above set out.

In our present Japplication for patent we 4 desire to claim one specific form of our new vfood and the process of making it; in an application of even date herewith we claim our new food and the process of making it broadly and generically.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. The process of making a concentrated vegetable food composition consisting in extracting the natural juices from edible vegetables which contain about 1% or less of saccharine material; extracting separately the natural juices from edible vegetables which contain about 3% to 15% of saccharine material; extracting with a vegetable acid the natural plant salts from the residues of said vegetables; intimately combining in a suitable vessel all juices thus extracted, acids and natural plant salts; heating the mixture until hydrolyzation of the sucrose therein is well advanced; and concentrating the mass in vacuo 2. In the process set forth in claim l, rendering soluble and extracting the natural plant salts from the residues of the vegetables which remain after the natural juices have been extracted by means of the natural juices fron a vegetable food material containing acl 3. rllhe process of making a concentrated vegetable food composition consisting in exjuices from edible vegetables which contain about 1% or less of saccharine material; extracting separately the natural juices' from edible vegetables which contain about 3% to 15% ofsaccharine material; extractingJwith a vegetable acid the natural plant salts from the residues of said vegetables;lintimately combining in a suitable vessel all juices thus extracted, acids and natural plant salts; heating for a moderate time at a moderate temperature the mixture until hydrolyzation of the sucrose therein is well advanced; and concentrating the mass in'vacuol 4.' A'llhe process of making a concentrated vegetable food composition consisting in ex-4 tracting the natural juices from edible vege tables which contain about 1% or less of saccharine material; extracting separately the natural juices from edible vegetables which contain about 3% to 15% of saccharine material; extracting with a vegetable acid the natural plant salts from the residues of said vegetables; intimately combining in a suitable vessel all juices thus extracted, acids llllil iso p saccharine material; extracting separately.

ythe natural juices and'natural plant salts; heating for a moderate time at a moderate temperature the mixture until hydrolyzation of the sucrose therein is well advanced; and concentrating the mass in vacuo, the temperature at no time exceeding in the neighborhood of C.

'5. The process of making a concentrated vegetable food composition consisting in extracting the natural juices from edible vegetables which contain about 1% or less of from edible vegetables which contain about 3% to 15% of saccharne material; 4extracting with a vegetable acid the natural plant salts from the residues of said vegetables; intimately combining in a suitable vessel all juices thus extracted, acids and natural plant salts; heating the mixture until hydrolyzation of the sucrose therein is Well advanced; and concentrating the mass in vacuo, condensing the vapors therefrom; separating the resultant oils; and adding said oils to the said mixture. w

In testimony whereof, we affix our signatures.

EUSTACE HAMILTON MILES. GERARD REILLY.' 

